Cobblestone Tale
by jazzy2.us
Summary: A player's spirit is forever boundless! Only through new beginnings can an old story continue!


The morning star rises over the earth when suddenly a new player manifests into a wooded biome. It takes its first breath and relaxes its muscles before opening its eyes and taking quick notice of its surroundings. It is almost like the player has woken up from a dream and crashed into reality with nothing more but an empty memory and an all too familiar feeling.

"_Welcome to the world, Joshy Boy,_" comes a faint whisper in the wind. "_May your new beginning treat you well and your spirit guide you towards adventure!_" Adventure? What does it mean by adventure? Joshy Boy removes his backpack and takes a look inside of its inventory—only to discover there is nothing inside. Puzzled, he takes a look at the trees of the woods then forms an idea to collect the wooden blocks. But how can he harvest wood without an axe? Only a fool will walk up to a tree and try using only its fists to knock it down. So instead, Joshy Boy walks up to a tree, feels around the trunk for a firm grip, then starts to climb up. When he reaches the leaves, he searches for a few sturdy sticks and breaks them from the tree and into a small pile. Finally he drops from the tree, landing awkwardly, and tends to his pile of sticks.

Among them, he chooses the sturdiest one and carefully splits the top end for a narrow-tight slit then begins breaking off the ends of the other sticks. After wedging the thin ends into the slit, Joshy Boy takes one of his shoelaces and fastens together a forged axe. He takes a few practice swings to ensure the constructed tool is durable enough to take a little bit of punishment. Sure the tool will not last very long, given its craftsmanship is less than ideal, but it will provide a way for Joshy Boy to start off on the right foot. So he returns to the same tree, readies his forged axe, and then strikes the trunk as hard as he can until a block of wood pops out. Perfect! The forged axe is able to carry out its purpose. So he collects the wooden block, clears the rest of the tree, then forges together wooden planks for benchmarking.

The player wastes no time to get started on his adventure. From the crafted workbench, he makes a better wooden axe to clear more trees, breaks stone into cobblestone with a wooden pickaxe, and collects the raw entrails and hides of nearby wildlife with the sharp end of his wooden sword. By high noon he has everything he needs to set up a small campsite and sits on a wooden block to eat apples which have fallen from cleared trees to listen in on the peaceful sounds of the woods. By late evening, heavy clouds begin to loom over the wooded biome just as he is finishing up the construction of his small tent. Thunder rumbles off in the distance and the shining star soon hides behind the thickness of the thunderheads. But despite the new difficulty to judge the time of day, Joshy Boy grabs his half-broken wooden tools and heads deeper into the woods. The rain begins to pour all at once, drowning out all the natural sounds of the woods and shrouding it in mist and fog.

Thunder crashes from left to right and lightening flashes vividly across the skies, which soon grow completely dark as nightfall begins its cycle unnoticed. Joshy Boy wears out the last durability of his wooden axe before it breaks into splinters upon its last block. A flash of lightening suddenly catches his attention and he looks up into the sky.

"_Be wary of nightfall, player..._" howls the whisper of the wind. "_There are dangers of the night which lurk in the shadows..._" Upon the roar of the rain, something in the distance barely startles him; a low groan followed by a pair of splashing footsteps. Slowly it draws closer and closer with another gurgle-like moan shooting through the wall of rain.

"_Zombie..._" Joshy Boy recognizes. He knows that sound all too well. He scans frantically all around him, panicking on which direction the noise is coming from. Finally, he takes a deep breath and readies himself with his wooden sword but then examines it. The blade is heavily dulled and on the verge of splitting in two. He is not sure just how much more the sword can take. Taking a few steps back, he puts away his sword then retreats in a random direction away from the unseen Mob and initiates his search for the campsite. The heavy rainfall splashes upon Joshy Boy's fedora and flashes of lightening only offer an instant's worth of guidance. Through the darkness, familiar grounds become nonexistent and the storm raging over him forever taunts him with an ever-changing maze.

Again and again he takes behind a tree, careful to avoid danger and give himself a bit of a break from the daunting downpour. He chest throbs painfully for the lack of air in his lungs and his heart pounds rapidly as fear settles inside it. He sinks a little against the trunk of an oak tree until something glowing in the distance catches his sight. What on earth is that? From what he can make out through the rain, it looks to be a pair of eyes locked on him. Can they be the eyes of an enraged enderman? They did not appear to be. The eyes watching him are nearly dead white and behind them peers a figure who looks a lot like a player. But in a moment's notice, the figure vanishes.

Without hesitation Joshy Boy quickly abandons the tree and resumes his search. Over time his body is overcome with fatigue and nausea paired with slight blindness begins to distort his vision. His breathing becomes increasingly difficult as he slowly drowns under the falling ocean of rain. In between blurs, he notices something white hiding behind a few trees. The campsite—he has found it! He laughs hysterically at the promising sight and rushes over to his wooden chest to fish out the raw entrails he collected before the storm. He takes refuge underneath his tent and begins nourishing himself into recovery. Finally everything dies down: the storm, the status effects, and his fear. Almost as if magnetically, he falls unto his bed and submerges under the calming darkness of sleep.


End file.
